Wick Sloane's previous offers to lead Harvard, the University of Iowa and the U.S. Education Department have been for naught. This time his alma mater has an opening, and he lays out his ideas for running the prestigious liberal arts college.

To bury the debates about whether to measure student learning, higher education -- and the new education secretary -- should do the hard work of figuring out the higher skills that students should have, writes Merilee Griffin.